Transcript

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>> Shares of Herbalife taking a beating Friday as its most vocal defender is looking to jump ship. Sources say Carl Icahn, the granddaddy of activist investing, wants to dump his stake in the controversial nutritional supplement company. So why would Icahn even consider bailing now? Reuters' correspondent Svea Herbst-Bayliss has an idea.

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>> Carl Icahn, as one of the very best investors ever is having a rather rough year. And he is said to be sitting on quite a number of losses and yet he's still lots of gains on his Herbalife bet. And so, hundreds and millions of dollars of gains, and so some people have speculated that it might be time to take profits on those gains.

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>> But billionaire hedge fund manager and Icahn frenemy Bill Ackman has a few ideas of his own. Ackman, who has a more than $1 billion bet that the stock will collapse and still won't recant, claims that Herbalife is a pyramid scheme, as he's lost millions, told CNBC, Icahn, who took the other side of his bet, knows, quote, this thing is toast.

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Regulators have ordered Herbalife to change the way it does business. And the saga gets even stranger.>> So what Bill Ackman has said today is that an investment bank had contacted him earlier this month and asked about possibly helping Carl Icahn get out of his shares by having this short-seller buy some shares.

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That seems counter intuitive, but Akman said that, if there were just a few more shares left to be bought to make Carl Ichan's trade, he would be willing to consider that. However, it does not appear that any such trade has actually been made.>> Rumors of Herbalife losing a major cheerleader have been circling all week, resulting in a loss of more than $400 million in market value in just five days.